Pinal Mountains, Oct 31, 2020

Dave, Tom, Joe W., and I went to the Pinal Mountains on October 31, 2020 (Halloween). The primary purpose of the trip was for Dave and Joe W. to fly their drones and get aerial pictures and videos of the fall colors. Dave invited me, and I’m always happy to go to the mountains. Dave’s brother Tom also came. I brought my camera along, and have just a few pictures for this post.

Here in the desert around Phoenix we don’t get the brilliant fall colors that are seen in other parts of the country. We have to drive a couple of hours up to the mountains to see the colors. The colors this trip weren’t great for still pictures from the ground, but Dave and Joe W got some nice drone shots. You can see some here. There was a hard freeze in the mountains a few days before, and I suspect that triggered the maple trees (just guessing). They were red, but a little past their prime time of brilliant red. There were also oak trees, and aspen stands, but they hadn’t changed color yet.

Dave took us to a spot he found in the past. From the road, it doesn’t look like much. But it’s on the edge of a canyon that the drones can fly into and get great shots. While they were flying the drones, Tom and I walked a short distance down the Ice Canyon Trail. I’ve gotten out of shape during the pandemic, and hiking back up the canyon in the thin air had me breathing hard!

After Dave and Joe W finished flying their drones, we drove up to Ferndell Spring, and spent about an hour there. It wasn’t as active as my last post from there, but we got a few shots.

We got back about 4:30, in time to put out pumpkins and wait for trick-or-treaters. There weren’t many kids due to the pandemic; we only had three groups show up. What are we going to do with the leftover candy?

It was a fun day in the mountains, and nice to spend time with the Burba brothers, and Joe W.